


In your heart shall burn the old fires

by orphan_account



Series: The Two Crowns : B Side [15]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - A Song of Ice and Fire, Gen, Wildlings - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 02:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4204539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She would show them. Despite her youth, despite the raging fire in her veins and the crippling fear in her mind, she would show them.<br/>She would show her brother she could be strong, even without Shoyou taking her hand. They had the same boiling blood in their veins, and she would make sure even Lord Sawamura knew it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In your heart shall burn the old fires

**Author's Note:**

> Natsu's side of post ch.6 of "The Two Crowns" verse.

Sunspear had lost all of its appeal to the young girl. The sea was deafening, as were the seagulls’ cry. The sun blinded her and the heat made her very steps heavier, melting under what felt wrong. Her blood boiled, not with its usual fire, not with her youth, but with a desperation she only had seen in her brother’s eyes before.

 

But now, Natsu thought that she would not see it anymore. That she would not see her brother anymore. And her hands seemed like claws against the linen sheets, her teeth like wolves’, clamped tight until her jaw hurts, until her eyes did not sting with hot tears anymore. Until the seagulls stopped crying in the blue sky and Natsu could only hear the rising beats of her heart.

 

She remembered the Princess’s soft words, soft hands on her as she cried, as she shouted, louder than the second Prince. For her brother was gone. Gone. And she felt like her mind, her soul was burning like the great fires of his stories.   
She knew, without truly realizing it, that she had lost everything when her brother did not appear among the dornish back from the arbour. That Shoyou’s absence meant much more than everyone thought.  
She knew she had lost her family, the last of her blood and of her tongue and she wildly thought that even the animals all around seemed to mourn alongside her.

 

In the heat of the night, curled around her sheets, or curled around the Princess herself, Natsu wished for winters. For cold nights, for the starless sky they had often slept under. She wished for her brother to be back until she knew he would not. Not now, and maybe not ever.

 

And her cries had ceased, the soft lullabies of Yui’s softened and were gone until Natsu could stand alone once again, drying her tears like war paint to hide her pain and her grief, for the wild fire to burn high again.

 

Be strong, she knew Shoyou often had told her, always in their birth tongue. As if the words held more power, as if an ancient spell from the old, old gods was held into these very words and Natsu always had believed him. Once, on his back, in the cold of the night begging for money to live on, when she knew he thought her to be asleep. Twice, running hand in hand as they stole bread and water, loud and proud even when their feets hurt. Thrice, fire burning in his eyes before he left never to return to her.

 

_Be strong._

_Be proud._

 

And Natsu swore she could hear her mother’s voice in Shoyou’s words. That she can hear the cold winds and the burning whiteness of the snow that birthed them.

So her feet finally touched the cold tiles of her small bedroom once again, her clothes hanging far too big on her smaller frame like too big of an armour, furs and metals melting on her skin, on her mind as she repeated the words again. And again, until her voice never wavered, until she believed in them and in the childish spell weaved into their history.

 

“ _I will make you proud_ ” she said, between her hands, as a prayer, as a vow to this sunny and hated sky.

 

She will show them. The southerners, the King and his brother Prince. That her brother would still live on, that their shared blood has not died, not yet.

 

She had dressed then, in plainer clothes than usual, her pretty, soft dresses carefully put away in the chest at her bed’s end as she breathed through her nose heavily, strengthening herself.

She had walked through the empty corridors, the sun shining through her every steps, hands trembling at her side despite her nails firmly planted into her skin.

 

“I wish to see Prince Sawamura” she had said, lips barely trembling as she looked at the guard and his heavy armour. The oak doors in the middle seemed even more impressive than usual, colder even, as if it screamed to her to step back. To bow to her fate, to their Stranger and Death both. But Natsu would not, not today.

 

She had fiddled a bit, stepping on the same tiles again and again as the guard went in, talking in muffled tone with the Prince, so low she hear but their deep voices. She had bowed her thanks, looking at the pretty floor before entering the Prince’s study, hiding her flinch as the door was shut behind her and the silence of the room deafening even her thoughts, even her vows.

 

“You wished to see me Natsu?” the Prince had said, voice soothing, as if calming a wild beast and Natsu smiled despite her nervousness.

 

“It’s about my brother my Lord” she had said, voice of steel. Voice hiding her fear, her lingering pain at even thinking of her lost one.

 

“We are still searching for him, we will find him” he answered easily, stepping around his wooden desk to sit on it, looking at her as an equal, as important in this search. Telling her not to give up, not yet and Natsu already vowed not to anyway.

 

“It is not why i am hear my Lord” she whispered, suddenly afraid of her vow, of her choice but refusing to back down. But as she looked up, the Prince’s face made her weary. She could see his strength, his power written in his posture and his face, even worried and relaxed as it was. “I want to fight.” she uttered, a bit too loud, a bit too rushed. “Like Shoyou did. Like your guards do.”

 

“Fight?” he had said and Natsu feared to hear the smile, the hidden laughter in his voice but found none. “Aren’t you to young to make such a decision?” he continued at Natsu silence as she fought not to bear her teeth at him

 

“ _I am not a westerosi._ ” she seethed in her tongue, watching the Prince’s face harden under her words, unknown to him. “I can fight. I will, even if I have to train myself” she added, more softly, anger leaving like waves on the hot sand.

 

She realized then, boiling blood and indignation making her heart race, that she was not one of them. Her brother had been, despite his ways, sharing their beliefs and their war. But she was the last one, and she would not be one of them if they brought her death. If they did not allow her to fight like her brother. If she could not become stronger.

 

“I do not doubt it Natsu.” he said, almost whispering as his hands were placed on his thighs. “If you are anything like your brother, i do not doubt it.”

 

“So can I? Wil I?” she whispered, hope shining through her every word, a child’s present being given to her, at her hands’ reach. Brother, she thought almost awed with it.

 

“Not yet. Not now, not until you have gained more strength, more stones in your body.” Sawamura had laughed, but Natsu felt nothing but warmth in his tone. A setting sun casting his light on a cold day. “The Maester can see to you, and deem you fit for duty. Learn from him first before going to Ukai. In a month, in a year, when you will be ready.”

 

She had smiled at him, a bit childish, a bit ferocious, like looking through the wolf cub’s eyes in front of a meal. She could be strong. Stronger than her brother was, and make her blood survive. Make her tongue survive, its spells and stories with her. She felt her body almost jump from the floor, excitement rushing through her veins and a thank to every god she could think of. From beyond the wall to this great grass sea in the East.

 

Be strong, he had said and Shoyou was right.

 

She had bowed clumsily, not waiting for the dismissal as she stepped out of the study, bowing once again to the guard, never minding her name being called out and the heavy sigh of the Lord. She could fight, she would fight one day.

 

She had run to the Maester’s study, until she stopped in front of the door. Afraid, anxious, and curious all at once. Her fist was too soft on the door, barely making a noise, all strength leaving her, knowing he held the power to make her wish come true. To make everything happen.

 

“Enter child” she heard, strong behind the wood and Natsu felt something deep settle into her, soothing her nerves, soothing yet nurturing the fire in her soul, the dreams of her mind.

 

She opened her mouth to talk, after the silence stretched on for too long, but his voice cut in. Sharp yet smooth in the silence.

 

“Do you truly want to fight Natsu?” he had asked her and she almost bristled at the words. The Prince said I could, she wanted to say, to shout. But the warmth in his eyes and the sharpness of his voice held something heavier than the Prince’s words and Natsu could not hold his gaze any longer.  
  
She knew that the Maester was someone special. Her brother often whispered about him in awe, in confusion. And everyone at the palace praised him. But now, in front of him, not sick, not asking for healing, she thought there truly was something to talk about. Something to see but everything pointed to a different direction.

 

“I do” she whispered to the wind, to the silence of the room and to the man.

 

“How do you want to fight child?” he added, as if clearing his thoughts on a whim and Natsu looked up to see him smile. To see the same light shining in his eyes than it did in her brother’s, making her gasp, making her breathless.

 

Legends, she whispered in harsh sounds and she saw the man smile back at her without moving.

 

“You can fight as a wildling. As a westerosi and much more. You can fight as both, training to be the best. To make your vow to your brother happen, to make his word come true.” he said, and Natsu swore she heard the same cold, sharp sounds rolling out of his tongue, erasing the sun and the sea until she could feel snow upon her nose.

 

“I am not westerosi, but not a true wildling either” she whispered, almost afraid, but sure of herself. She was not, not really. They never were, not when they hid, not when they ate and talked with them. Her brother and her had been runaways, between worlds and kingdoms, home destroyed and burned to the ground with sickness and fire.

 

“Let me help you become both.” he had only said, the words she recognized as if it came from the womb, as if the old, old gods talked through him and Natsu smiled.

 

Sunspear was home once again. The sun the same brightness of her brother’s hair, the clear sky holding words and promises, never to stray far from her as she stepped in the Maester’s study, closing the door behind her.

  
She may never see her brother again, but she will show him, wherever he was. From their seven hells to their seven heavens, she will show him.  
  
What it is to be strong.  
What it is to be proud.  
  
And she whispered the words every night to the wind, hoping they will be brought to her brother by the winds and the rain.


End file.
